so if you ride best with your AB stay with it. It is a good kite anyway.

You can get a wake board or kiteboard in wakestyle. There are a few good out there, but also a lot of bad products.
If you can test, try different ones. I ride a X-Shooter and love it. Underground is good, Brunotti, etc. But if you can test you will notice which board is good for you and which not.

don't do it.
Keep it.
It's a matter of a couple of sessions and you'll enjoy it.
If you sell it, than you are going to buy a new one in a month!
First time out with a 11.8 wipika I said to myself. First and last. NO more kite bigger than 8.x Now the bigger the better, more lift, more power, more stability, more long lasting session.
Never let go
Cheers
Niks

here in germany & austria the kiters that ride on lakes often use flysurfer and ARC's ...

both the new flysurfers (warrior & maniac) and the arc's won't stall & drop even in very gusty conditions.

the flysurfer's the only softite i know with a real working depower. and it flies smoother than the mosquitos, jojos or quadrifoils.

the ARC is the only kite i know that has a 100% working safety system.(f you're out with a 1120 or 1410 or 1510 and, as it might happen on some lakes, are suddenly confronted with 7 beaufort, all these kites will get to a full stall and drop to earth without dragging you.
i wouldn't really like to let go of a 16m tubekite or 12m flysurfer in 7bft ...

Murdoc, you low-land-indian (aka Flachland Indianer) lol
It doesnt happen very often that a 7 bft gust hits you spontaneously. You should watch out a little that you don't go out in thunderstorm weather.
Hello from "Italy",
Nico

What you write is not exactly true for our lake (lake neusiedl, austrias biggest lake 6 by 30 km large), here it happens all the time that the actual force of the wind (remember doubled windspeed --> 4 times the force) doubles within a few minutes without any reliable signs of warning (well except for the fact that we know this can happen with westerly winds very easy).

And in addition sometimes there are gusts that hit so fast and hard (5bf base wind with 7bf gusts that change direction up to 20 degrees, so your kite is not only exposed to a sudden 7bf gust, its also sitting right in the powerzone when the gust hits) - you have to do a quick buttcheck stop the board immediately with an hard upwind carve, and while doing that you have to steer the kite to the watersurface and while beeing draged with your board (hopefully a wakestyle board - no realistic chance of "survival" with a directional in these conditions) right in front of you have to press againts the pull of the kite as hard as you can and force the kite to the edge of the window (fast, very fast in order to stay in control and avoid an ugly barely controlable highspeed bodydrag).
The kite HAS to be very fast (e.g. wedged 840 or 630 Arcs or "new generation" inflatables (naish size) 10 or smaller) - a slow kite would work you bigtime in these conditions.
And then there comes the real ugly part - as soon as the gust is over your kite is suddenly out (!!) of the Windwindow due to the fact that the wind turns back to normal speed and normal direction (up to 20 degrees back)so you have to be really quick when the gust starts to loose power (most gusts last for 10 to 20 second), so you can steer the kite back into the new windwindow before it stalls and falls out of the sky (or floats back with the risk of inversing in case of the arc) - so with strong westerly winds the conditions here are very very tough and for expert kiters only.
As you can imagine fully working safety systems and kites that fully depower in case you have to let go are a very wise move in these conditions

Thanks for correcting me, I don't want to give people a false sense of security.
I was out on the Achensee last THursday, and was also quite surprised about the wind shifts and gusts. I would not have imagined that a relatively more open lake like yours would have such adverse conditions - is there anything in the west that could cause it?
We just have to live with these conditions, unfortunately we're not as lucky as the guys living on the coast Cheers
Nico

I thinka that-aa tis kite X2 wit 12 m2 is good kite, no? Forme tis is god for 25-40 knots and good jump. No problem wit controle or no to much power, yes? I hav idea to buy also 20-25 m2 X2 for the sesion light wind, when like only 15-20 knots. I have only 82 kg but the X2 is good trim and I realy love tis kite.

On 2002-06-05 12:47, jever98 wrote:Thanks for correcting me, I don't want to give people a false sense of security.I was out on the Achensee last THursday, and was also quite surprised about the wind shifts and gusts. I would not have imagined that a relatively more open lake like yours would have such adverse conditions - is there anything in the west that could cause it?We just have to live with these conditions, unfortunately we're not as lucky as the guys living on the coast CheersNico

The Size of the lake doesn't matter, its the inland location that causes the problems - on the sea you have a constant pressure difference between (the mostly) colder air above the sea and warmer air above land and this creates a more steady flow of air (well within certain limits of windspeed of coarse).

Our Westerly winds travel along or over the alps and "fall" down into the Flatlands east of vienna, then there is another small "mountain" range (mostly only 200m high) called the "leithagebirge" wich causes further turbulences because the lake is right behind it. On the other Hand Winds from the N or NW travel a relatively wide distance without major obstructions, so they are a little bit more consistent.

Generally Wind form westerly directions (dead onshore on the rdable side of the lake) with more than 6bf are barely rideable and only expert kiters that take all possible precautionary measures should go out (but still with a relatively high risk of getting lofted or dragged)

Mountain lakes like Achensee are sometimes (not always) even harder to ride due to thermic fallwinds and sudden gusts caused by local low/high pressure cells (forming e.g. on cold shady rockwalls opposed by sunbaked parts of a valley).

To me it is always amazing how easy highwind kiting in open ocean conditions is compared to highwind inland lake kiting.

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